i realise that it’s mildly amusing, but i wonder, with all of the truly awful things that are happening in the world these days, why the “dutch guy whose cat was killed by a car, so he had it stuffed and turned it into a remote-control helicopter” story is anything like the number one story that it has been for the past few days…

seriously, i’ve seen more-or-less consistent variations of the story everywhere from the LA times, to the London Daily Mail, to ChristWire, and everywhere (almost literally) in between…

come on, humans… aren’t there more important things to which we should be paying attention? 😐

Obama Comes Out for Same-Sex Marriage – when he comes out in favour of legalising pot, i’ll be interested… 😐

THE PROBLEM: The New Blue Collar: Temporary Work, Lasting Poverty And The American Warehouse

THE SOLUTION: Why Bother Working At A Job You Hate?, and The RICH Economy

i maintain that if we didn’t HAVE to go to work in order to survive (“wage slavery”), we wouldn’t have the massive problems in society that we CURRENTLY have with “unemployment”… 😛

"The widely prevalent concept of what constitutes news, is a narrow, destructive concept — a sick concept, destructive to society as a whole. The news format in all our media is, in general, inimical or opposed to the development of human potential."
     — Dr. Herbert A. Otto, Research Director of the Stone Foundation

The Department of Homeland Security Is Searching Your Facebook and Twitter for These Words – Agriculture avalanche avian bacteria border botnet carbomb China drill drug drug war earthquake execution forest fire gang gas grid hack heroin hostage interstate Islamist Jihad Juarez keylogger kidnap La Familia looting malware marijuana meth lab nationalist nuclear outbreak Pakistan pandemic pipebomb pirates power lines radicals relief resistant Ricin riot San Deigo scammers screening symptoms Tamiflu terror U.S. Consulate violence virus warning weapons grade wildfire, Yemen, enriched, IRA, prevention, pirates, radicals, hurricane, storm, snow, watch, earthquake, help, hail, aid, relief, interstate, hacker, China, worm, and social media…. among others… hello DHS agents clowns 😐

$1B of TSA Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog — How Anyone Can Get Anything Past The Scanners – too bad i didn’t know this before i went to san francisco… oh well, there’s always next time… there’s a lot of interesting stuff at his blog, TSA Out of Our Pants!… check it out. 😉

US Congress expands authoritarian anti-protest law – and, of course, nobody else is reporting on it…

BP’s $7.8 Billion Settlement of Deepwater Horizon Spill Does Nothing for Louisiana – 😐

Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France – the prices are higher. you don’t get more, or better service, you just pay more. that’s it… 😡

18.6 million housing units in the United States are unoccupied – or, roughly, around 24 houses for every homeless person in the country… and they wonder why people are angry. 😐

wait… what??? – Pat Robertson Blames Liberals for Drug War and Overincarceration

this week’s WHO NEEDS TERRORISTS? segment includes: The report police hid for nearly two years, that corroborates an investigation, and vindicates a whistle-blower the NYPD tried to destroy and FBI Director: I Have to Check to See If Obama Has the Right to Assassinate Americans On U.S. Soil and A man who informed police when he found child abuse images on his computer has not been allowed to be alone with his daughter for four months and School Demands Access To 12-Year-Old’s Facebook and Email. Parents Not Notified and Peaceful Anti-Fracking Activists Pursued by FBI as ‘Eco-Terrorists’ and US soldier carries out brutal slaying of at least 16 Afghan civilians

Walmart For President – hey, corporations are people, remember?

normally i try to avoid this site, because mercola is a raving lunatic, but i just learned a quote from winston churchill, that goes “The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.” and this is a good example: FDA Says Walnuts Are a "New Drug" and says that they can’t be marketed in a way that emphasises their omega-3 fats… but as long as people don’t know that they’re actually good for them, they’re fine. 😐

America is a Constitutional Republic… NOT a Democracy – actually, i’ve known this for a long time, but it’s still a shock to me that other people might not know it.

BP Settlement Avoids Day in Court with People Hurt by Spill and BP settles while Macondo seeps – oh no, the problem is all cleared up, there’s no need to look, because it’s not really there… don’t worry… 😡

Self-Interest Spurs Society’s ‘Elite’ To Lie, Cheat – this is why there will always be “class war”, and is the primary reason i believe that the only way to fix things is to eliminate wage-slavery! 😐

Rick Santorum, Meet My Son — He has a degenerative disease that has left him blind, paralyzed, and increasingly nonresponsive. If I had known before he was born, I would have saved him from suffering. – whoever it comes down to, rick santorum must not be allowed to win the election. 😐

this week’s WHO NEEDS TERRORISTS? department includes the following: Dad Arrested, Strip-Searched After 4-Year-Old Daughter Draws a Picture of a Gun in School and Remember, Cops Are Your "Friends" and Excessive Force Is Dangerous — To View on YouTube and Arrested for Meditating and Judge Orders Top N. Miami Senior High Student To Leave U.S. and TSA forces new mom to pump milk out of her breasts in public restroom before boarding the plane

Cleaning up the ’hood — Focusing on drug markets rather than users means less crime – the problem is that, despite its success in reducing crime, DMI has been in use since 2004, and nobody has taken the slightest bit of notice… it requires too much participation from people who wouldn’t be affected otherwise, if the drug dealer went to jail… that and the fact that people would still want to do drugs… that’s why the only logical solution is to legalise ALL drugs and tax the resultant income. i don’t know a single user of cannabis that wouldn’t be happy to pay a tax on legally purchased weed… 😉

Verisign seizes .com domain registered via foreign Registrar on behalf of US Authorities. and The Systematic Destruction of the Bill of Rights – in spite of the fact that SOPA is in limbo, the US gummint still feels like it has the authority to seize domains that exist outside of US jurisdiction, any time they want, and here are the reasons why…

… but that will not stop me from saying stuff about it anyway! 😛

Election hacked, drunken robot elected to school board – if it wasn’t such a slap in the face, it would be funny… and it just starts with having your admin username and password set to “admin”… 😐

New speech-jamming gun hints at dystopian Big Brother future – 😮

MASSIVE LEAK REVEALS CRIMINALITY, PARANOIA AMONG CORPORATE TITANS – 😮

there isn’t going to be much in the way of outrageous headlines today, as i have been preparing to go to san francisco for the AGT auditions. we weren’t selected (i.e. we didn’t make the cut), but we got an all-expenses-paid three-night vacation in san francisco, so it was a win anyway… and as much as i would have liked my share of a million dollars, there’s so much fake bullshit in these “reality TV” programs that i would have had to compromise my standards way too much.

whatever else may be happening, the world is fucked and we all — every single one of us, without exception — are going to hell (if we’re not already there), so nothing much has changed. hopefully i’ll be back to a more normal routine next week.

How to delete your Google Browsing History before the new policy makes it permanent – this has been a public service announcement, brought to you by the “google is NOT supposed to be evil” association, the advertising council, and this radio station. it’s 9:00. 😐

Artificial hamburger meat successfully grown in vat of bovine fetal cells; You want some fries with that? – i’m not sure what to think of this… it could be the saviour of the world, but it could also end up as soylent green…

How to Become a Government Spy in Three Easy Steps – DHS has a training plan for you, too…

Depressed Army reservist attacked by police force after calling for help and NYPD monitored Muslim students all over Northeast and Here’s Why Drivers Get Away With Murder In NYC and Police Officer Caught On Tape Saying He Can "Make Up" Evidence and Some Who Decline an Optional Iris Photo Are Kept Longer in Jail and Fart joke leads to bomb scare as 11 agencies swoop down on Mississippi school – who needs real terrorists? the cops clowns seem to be more interested in making sure everybody stays in line than they are about fighting real terrorism…

Cop or Soldier? – because you really need to be able to tell the difference…

What If Someone Could See Everything You’ve Ever Googled? – too late, it already exists, and it’s probably not what you think.

Study says insecticide used with GM corn highly toxic to bees – yet another reason to be extremely skeptical of this genetically-modified “food” thing…

Oklahoma Democrats want to ban Onanism – much as i would like to say this is a joke… it’s only sort of a joke. 😐

New DHS Report: If You Love “Individual Liberty” Or If You “Believe In Conspiracy Theories” You Are A Potential Terrorist –

… but that will not stop me from saying stuff about it anyway! 😛

CCTV police officer ‘chased himself’ after being mistaken for burglar and Muslim sales manager arrested as terrorist for call to ‘blow away’ the competition and Video shows officers beating motorist in diabetic shock – who needs terrorists? 😐

According To The FBI, Internet Privacy Is Now Considered To Be Suspicious Activity and FBI: Paying Cash For a Cup of Coffee a ‘Potential Indicator of Terrorist Activity’ – ???

Rounding Up U.S. Citizens – ??? 😮

TSA agents denied female passenger boarding access because of her gender – and this is on a domestic flight… what happens when a woman wants to fly overseas? 😐

25 Reports That Can Put You on the Terror Watch List – ???

Congress Approves 30,000 Spy Drones Over America As US Police State Tightens – ???

Elections Are For Suckers – !!! 😐

FDA’s New Claim: “Your Body Is a Drug — and We Have the Authority to Regulate It!” – ???

and while we’re at it, The Disaster at “Christ is Love” – which is what they would like to do with drug users in this country, if we’d let ’em… 😐

Yeah, Ron Paul Is Racist After All, Sorry – ???

12 current Latin American leaders call for exploration of legal drug regulation – but because they’re brown people from another country, nobody’s going to pay any attention to them and things are going to continue being screwed up as usual. 😡

Google paying users to track 100% of their Web usage via little black box – translation for suckers: “Google is paying ignorant suckers to install and maintain a “rootkit” that does exactly the same thing as the viruses and trojans that they spend so much money trying to avoid”… once again, i feel it is necessary to point out that there are only two industries that refer to their customers as “users”: one of them is the computer software industry, and the other one is DRUG DEALERS… 😡

It Is Time To Legalize All Drugs – yep… too bad nothing is being done about it… 😐

Could A Club Drug Offer ‘Almost Immediate’ Relief From Depression? – yep… too bad the drug is an illegal one… 😐

Hunting Nazis: Anonymous snares Ron Paul in Operation Blitzkrieg – there have been enough incidents like this one to make me very skeptical about ron paul, even if he does have a chance to win this time around.

Mickey Mouse Whois ban threat sparks privacy fears – the days of registering domains as “N. O. Body”, “Mickey Mouse” or “Charlie Sheen” are coming to an end, if ICANN has its way… good if you hate spam, bad if you’re in the business of providing whois privacy…

Twitter Users Beware: Homeland Security Isn’t Laughing and UK tourists who tweeted they would ‘destroy America’ banned from US – forget about “real” terrorists, the US copsclowns go after a couple of UK citizens out for a party… perhaps they’re easier to find. moral: people who live in other countries should be more straight-laced and submissive… like us… 😐

FBI Drug Squad Uses Chainsaw To Invade… the Wrong Apartment and TSA agent at JFK stole $5K from passenger and Park ranger shoots man with stun gun for walking dogs off-leash – who needs terrorists? 😡

Syrian forces ‘torture children as young as 13’ – 😮

Another Blow to Privacy — Now It’s Google! – this is NOT a privacy policy, and they DO NOT get to use MY material to publicise their business: “When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones.”

earlier in the week, The Susan G. Komen Foundation withdrew funding for Planned Parenthood, under pressure from anti-abortion groups — even though they released a video which specifically said that they weren’t politically motivated to make such a decision. however, after a week of backlash from everyone except the anti-abortion crowd, SGK reversed their decision, once again saying that their choice was not politically motivated. for as much good as they have done in the past, i would say that their credibility, at this point, is completely shot. 😐 Susan G. Komen Foundation Backs Down

You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You – Treat your customers with respect , and they’ll do the same to you. And that is how you fight piracy.

Top five regrets of the dying – change your life now, because, soon, it will be too late, and then YOU will be having these regrets! the interesting part is that, since my injury, i haven’t had those five regrets anywhere near as much as i had them prior to it… 8)

Continue reading another week closer to the eschaton… →

Next Up: Enemy Expatriation Act; Would Strip Americans of Citizenship For "Hostilities Against the United States" –

… but that will not stop me from saying stuff about it anyway! 😛

This Is a Test… (And Too Many Americans Are Failing) – if the united states is to be turned into a plutocracy, our collective ignorance is an absolute necessity.

Oakland Police Violate Their Own Policies and She Dialed 911. The Cop Who Came to Help, Raped Her. and Federal judge gives an Arkansas car passenger $1 after he was tasered by cops, even though he committed no crime and Two brave policemen shoot 43-year-old woman in the back with tasers – who needs foreign terrorists? we’ve got home grown police officers terrorists right down here…

How Much Do Music and Movie Piracy Really Hurt the U.S. Economy? – if you said “between $200 and $250 billion per year, and is responsible for the loss of 750,000 american jobs”, you’d be wrong. those numbers are made up out of thin air by people who do not have the “us economy” in mind.

Could magic mushrooms help the fight against depression? – as nice as this sounds, there’s going to have to be some substantial changes in federal law before it gains any ground at all… 😐

The U.S. Government Funded the Iranian Terrorist Group Which “Found” The Documents Upon Which the Warmongers Are Relying – hmmm… this sounds vaguely familiar… and the US does have a long history of using forged documents as an excuse for war… 😐

SOPA Shelved Indefinitely, Obama Succumbs to Pressure, Issues Official Veto Threat – while obama was right this time, my impression is that once it isn’t an election year, SOPA, in one form or another, will return with a vengeance.

World Peace Hanging by a Thread – for a former leader of a country at odds with the united states, fidel castro sure seems like he’s got his shit together…

One In Three U.S. Warplanes is a Robot; 7,494 Drones and Counting – EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act request in april of 2011 for records of unmanned aircraft activities over domestic soil. not surprisingly, the DOT so far has failed to provide the information, which indicates that they’ve got something to hide… 😐

My Guantánamo Nightmare – Lakhdar Boumediene was a childrens’ humanitarian aid worker with the red crescent until the united states government decided that he was a terrorist, kidnapped him, and held him in gitmo, where he was tortured for seven years until somebody noticed and he was released… and that was before the president signed the law allowing such things. last week i posted about some OWS protesters who were arrested for speaking in public… i wonder what happened to them? 😐

Free Speech Is On Thin Ice and Critical Thinking Is Unpatriotic

… but that will not stop me from saying stuff about it anyway! 😛

Doomsday Clock Moves 1 minute closer to midnight – “Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed.”

Grow Up, Ron Paul – as much as i like his libertarian take on cannabis, i have too much concern for people and the environment to treat him as a serious contender for president.

Ten Years At Guantánamo Bay By The Numbers – and it doesn’t look like it’s going to close any time soon, thanks to the people who promised to close it deciding not to anyway… 😐

Santorum Supports Accused Child Molester Sandusky – and this guy wants to be our president?

Homeland Security monitors journalists – hello clown-land security goons… i am a terrorist! 😐 Anarchy is America’s solution

While U.S., Afghans, NATO Condemn Marines Urinating On Dead Taliban, Right Wing Says ‘I Could Care Less’ – my guess is that it’s going to get an awful lot worse before it starts to get better again… probably not within my lifetime, and likely not within my son’s lifetime… 😐

however, i want to examine the word desecration a little more closely. according to the dictionary definition, to “desecrate” something is to “divest it of its sacred or hallowed character or office”. the people on whom the marines were urinating, according to the video, were “dead taliban”, although it’s not clear whether they were actual taliban fighters, or dead civilians that were caught in the crossfire, but either way, were they doing something – other than being human – that would have meant that most people would consider their behaviour “sacred or hallowed”? and if they were, actual, taliban fighters, who, presumably moments previously, were trying to kill those marines, would their behaviour still be considered “sacred or hallowed”? probably not, but the geneva convention prohibits “the desecration of bodies of people killed in war” so if their behaviour wasn’t sacred, at least according to the “people who make the rules”, then the only remaining thing that could have been sacred about them was the fact that they were human. exactly the SAME KIND of human that were the marines who were desecrating their bodies.

let me see if i’ve got this straight: human beings are sacred, but the geneva convention prohibits the desecrating of people who have been killed in war… so the geneva convention doesn’t make human beings so sacred that it’s not okay to kill them – which, if the human being is sacred, would be the ultimate desecration… in other words, only DEAD people are sacred… before they die, they’re free game, but once they’re dead, you DON’T TOUCH their bodies without respect for the divine…

something is seriously fucked up with the society that would make this kind of rule, and think that they made war “okay” because they have rules like this. 😛

Dumb As A Rock: You Will Be Absolutely Amazed At The Things That U.S. High School Students Do Not Know – perhaps this is why we’re plunging headlong towards the eschaton… it certainly isn’t slowing us down any.

The Greatest Truth Never Told – this guy is saying pretty much exactly the same thing that i’ve been saying for years… maybe someone will pay attention to him.

Google, what were you thinking? – this is the reason i’m suspicious, to say the least, about anything having to do with google. to me, a company whose motto is “do no evil” deserves watching a bit more closely than other companies, and this is exactly the reason why.

NYPD Arrests Anyone Who Speaks: This Would Be Used as War Propaganda if NY Was Foreign and Had Oil – OWS protestors are arrested for speaking in public… seriously, where’s my country? 😛

Why the NDAA Now? – 1) They are saying that the military/corporate complex is in charge, and electoral politics mean nothing; 2) They are warning those who would criticize our foreign or domestic policies that the consequences of excessive criticism could land you in jail for the rest of your life, or that it could be fatal; 3) They are saying that our civilian judicial system is now subordinate to military control and domination; 4) They are telling the American people that dissent is dangerous, and outside the law; 5) They are informing the world that the true masters have stepped forward from the shadows to demonstrate that Americans are no more in control of their own government than the citizens of any fascist regime in the world; 6) They are reinforcing the concept that we are in a perpetual state of war, and that there will never again be periods of peace; and, 7) They are saying that obedience, and not democracy, is the order of the day.

There’s Something They’re Not Telling Us… and Defiling the Constitution, Betraying the Founders and Can the US Government be Trusted as Judge and Jury in NDAA Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens? and Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Into Law – obama – a former constitutional law professor – cannot be trusted to uphold universal human rights standards and the rule of law.

Police State 2012: No Need to Wait, It’s Already Here – the people hold all the power. no amount of illegal surveillance or police state gadgets will ever hold back an engaged, informed public that recognizes their own power.

Santorum’s ‘Freedom’ is Pretty Much Slavery and Santorum targets blacks in entitlement reform – and this guy wants to be our PRESIDENT⁈⁉ 😛

ACLU Asks Court to Stop Missouri Library From Illegally Censoring Minority Religious Websites – the library director “said she would only allow access to blocked sites if she felt patrons had a legitimate reason to view the content and further said that she had an obligation to report people who wanted to view these sites to the authorities.”

Russian Protesters Use Art as Act of War – hmmm… maybe we should use that idea domestically as well…

CVDazzle – is an interesting looking method of circumventing computer facial recognition, using the same principles as dazzle camouflage.

Dallas teen missing since 2010 was mistakenly deported – it seems a bit abnormal to me that they would deport a 15-year-old girl with no identification, without at least trying to figure out who she was first. one way or the other, the colombian government refuses to release her from the detention facility where she is being held for some unknowable reason… 😐

FDA Claims Walnuts to be Illegal Drugs – apple-jacks and froot-loops, however, are not… 😡

TSA ‘Spot Searches’ Expand To Union Station

… but that will not stop me from saying stuff about it anyway! 😛

President Obama Signs Indefinite Detention Bill Into Law – 😮 that’s it: i’m not voting for him again.

The American Fascist Sandwich: Indefinite Detention and Internment Camps – 😮

The Return of Waterboarding? – three candidates said without hesitation that they would authorize waterboarding as an interrogation technique… 😮

Occupy Rigged Elections: A Call for the Second American Revolution in 2012 – When candidates emerge who support the positions and demands of the 99 percent, the more certain we can be that our elections will be rigged.

Can Juries Ignore ‘’Immoral’ Laws by Nullifying Them? – short answer: yes. longer answer: you’ve got to be careful, because the gummint doesn’t want you to know that juries are supposed to dispense justice, and not just to “uphold the law” – which means a jury has the ability to strike down unjust laws, if the laws are unjust. an example of how the gummint prefers an ignorant jury? the 79-year-old chemistry professor who has been charged with “jury tampering” because he has been standing outside the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, providing passersby with pamphlets. see above.

You Won’t Believe How Corrupt, Lazy And Stinking Rich Our Congress Critters Have Become – “when it comes to federal elections, the candidate that raises the most money wins about 90 percent of the time”…

Bradley Manning hearing ends with no clear sign of harm done to U.S. – last week i posted about US citizens beginning to disappear because the government has decided that it’s okay now, and it would be my guess that manning will be one of the first people to have this happen to him, especially now that the government has, essentially, admitted that they had no reason whatsoever to keep him in isolation at gitmo for over a year… 😐

If You Can’t Beat Them, Enjoin Them (From Voting) – across the country, state legislatures and governors are pushing laws that seek to restrict access to the voting booth, laws that will disproportionately harm people of color, low-income people, and young and elderly voters. for example: 93-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Who Cleaned State Capitol For 30 Years Denied Voter ID – “Thelma Mitchell, who was delivered by a midwife in Alabama in 1918, has never had a birth certificate, but when she told that to a drivers’ license clerk, he suggested she might be an illegal immigrant.”

Sea Shepherd Intercepts the Japanese Whaling Fleet with Drones – how’s that $3 million taken from the tsunami disaster recovery fund working out for you now, eh’? my guess is that the sea shepherds are going to do better this year than they have previously, despite all the new tech the japanese government throws at ’em. 😉

US eyes first BP criminal charges over Gulf spill – it’s over, but it’s not finished yet…

Christmas: Brought to You by Chinese Slave Labor – this is why i don’t buy stuff to give as xmas gifts… and it’s one of the main reasons i’m a hindu.

Tweeting the word ‘drill’ could mean your Twitter account is read by U.S. government spies – i don’t have a twitter account (although i used to have one, i never used it and cancelled it a long time ago) however; ‘illegal immigrant’, ‘outbreak’, ‘drill’, ‘strain’, ‘virus’, ‘recovery’, ‘deaths’, ‘collapse’, ‘human to animal’ and ‘trojan’… i know a guy who is retired NSA, and from what he has said, i’m pretty sure that they’re “tracking” me anyway, as i make no bones about using words like “I AM A TERRORIST” in posts like this (hello NSA 8) ), but i don’t care… let them ‘disappear’ me… i’d like to see them try. 😐

this week’s “another week closer to the eschaton” post has been censored as a protest against the “rogue sites legislation” (ie, SOPA or internet censorship) currently being considered by congress. if you want it to change, better call your congresscritter, now, ’cause obama has reversed himself (again) and said that he won’t veto it, and if that is the case, then things are likely to get A LOT worse soon… 😐

About that boot on your throat… – “All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.” — George Orwell

SWAT Raids, Stun Guns, And Pepper Spray: Why The Government Is Ramping Up The Use Of Force – “…a group of Tibetan monks inadvertently overstayed their visas while touring the U.S. on a peace mission. Naturally, immigration officials sent a SWAT team to apprehend them.”

TSA strip-searches 85-year-old woman in wheelchair – and then lies about it… also, FBI’s new definition of rape ensnares TSA agents as serial rapists – according to the “new” definition of rape, the federal government’s TSA agents are serial rapists… i wonder how long that’s going to last before there is an “exception” made for TSA agents… or when they decide to “redefine” rape again… 😐

BP says Halliburton ‘intentionally destroyed evidence’ after Gulf oil spill – really, who is surprised by this?

Police Try to Dissuade Elderly Woman From Defending Herself Against Home Invasion – self-defense used to be a civic duty, but now they’re encouraging an elderly lady to submit to a home invasion, because they’re not there yet… right, and when they got there, they probably would have arrested the lady and let the burgler go free… 😐

US Government Bans A Specific Brain Function – if you take any substance that is a CB1 agonist (like, for example, TYLENOL) you can be arrested… we’ll see how well that works once the government discovers how many things that can bind with cannabis receptors in the human brain. until then, don’t expect things to get any better.

10 Signs You Might Be a Slave – 😮

Widespread Smart Phone Spying is ‘Unprecedented breach of digital privacy’ – this is why i don’t even want a “smart” phone…

It’s your fault… – that’s it… either we all learn to live together (and that, quickly), or we will ALL die. together.

Idea of civilians police using drone aircraft may soon fly with FAA – “Police agencies want drones for air support to spot runaway criminals…” and forget about anybody else having them, because it’s not going to happen… this is modern day america, remember…

Fukushima Radiation Risks "Severely Underestimated" – remember fukushima… it’s still getting worse…

A Secret Scandal – “During the deepest, darkest period of the financial cataclysm, the CEOs of major banks maintained in statements to the public, to the market at large, and to their own shareholders that the banks were in good financial shape, didn’t want to take TARP funds, and that the regulatory framework governing our banking system should not be altered. Trust us, they said…”

Take Our Children, Please! A Modest Proposal for Occupy Wall Street – we are already eating our own children or, at least, the futures available to them…

Pepper Spray Developer: It Has Become Fashionable to Use Chemicals on People with Opinions – which is not, apparently, the use for which it was originally intended… oh well…

Gorilla Rebranding – this appears to be a collection of re-branded 1% sites, for example “FakeMath.com” redirects to the federal reserve, and WorldBankrupt.com redirects to the World Bank Group, but they’ve got brilliant designers doing the work of redesigning the logos that go along with them… go check it out soon, because my impression is that, once “they” find out, it’ll be gone. 😉

La-La Land – we’re an ill society, we don’t really know what the medicine tastes like, and many won’t even concede that we’re sick.

Q: Who killed more Americans —al Qaeda crashing airplanes into the World Trade Center, or Merck pushing Vioxx? – A: Merck, by a factor of 18.

Occupy Wall Street’s anarchist roots – The ‘Occupy’ movement is one of several in American history to be based on anarchist principles.

New evidence suggests that the Conficker worm may have been developed by the U.S. Government – 😮

Danish "Pirate Blogger" Law Student Raided By Police For Articles About File-Sharing – while this isn’t in the united states, it surprises me a great deal that it hasn’t already happened here…

War on drugs revealed as total hoax – US military admits to guarding, assisting lucrative opium trade in Afghanistan – meanwhile, cannabis is still illegal, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change any time soon. 😐

Occupy the Tax Man – okay, this is from india, but it is the same general concept…

Occupy the Detention Van – cops arrest protesters, lock themselves out of their own van.

Wal-Mart is Larger than Norway – yet another very good reason to refrain from shopping there…

Life began with a planetary mega-organism – science may not have all the answers, but the answers they do have are A LOT more convincing (and cooler!) than anything “intelligent design” has to offer… 😉

To Change the Country, We Just Might Have to Change Ourselves – which is why it’s never gonna’ happen… just sayin’…

Urge the Senate to Oppose Indefinite Military Detention – the U.S. Senate is considering the unthinkable: changing detention laws to imprison people — including Americans living in the United States itself — indefinitely and without charge.

Six Children Are Killed by NATO Airstrike in Afghanistan – i wonder what their parents are thankful for…

Occupy Peace – Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children… This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. — Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

Occupy Language: the struggle over meaning – my impression is that it will be a lot easier to convince those who don’t want to change with language that is meaningful and consistent. at this point, i don’t see a lot of that happening.

The Use of Pepper Spray On Peaceful Protesters Is Illegal … And Can Seriously Injure Or Kill – just in case anybody had any doubts. however, whatever you believe, According to a UC Police Captain, linking arms to form a human chain is an act of violence – just in case anybody had any doubts…

Who Wasted $13m on Occupy Protests? – hint: it wasn’t the 99%…

Disabled Man Tasered To Death For Falling Off Bike – police are now trained that “pain compliance,” a euphemism for torture, is acceptable in apprehending anyone even if that person poses no physical danger.
also, Cop Arrests Five Year Old for Acting Out in School and 5-Year-Old Handcuffed, Charged With Battery On Officer – 😮

Fort Worth Man Gets 80 Years For Buying A Hot Dog With Fake Money – the people who caused the economic collapse, however, get bonuses with real money, as everybody else has to put up with no heat and not enough food.

Federal agents shut 88-year-old man’s business, because his product is being used by meth labs – federal and state drug enforcement agents are coming down hard on a humble homemade solution, which helps backpackers purify water…

Vancouver Mayors Say Legalize Marijuana – that’s good, but vancouver is one place in a large variety of places that, illogically, don’t want cannabis legalised, so it probably won’t happen any time soon… 😐

Mississippi Republicans Only Narrowly Support Interracial Marriage – this isn’t 50 years ago, it’s today. 😐 the reason we’ve got to deal with “the war on terrorism”, and “global warming”, and occupy wall street, and priests abusing kids and things like that, these days, is because there are still people who would keep us thinking this way. it’s ignorant, it’s wrong, and i don’t like it. the way to change the world, is to change the MINDS of people who don’t want to change… and that’s the part that i still can’t figure out. but you have my word as an enlightened person, that if i ever figure that out, it’s going to be the first thing on my list of things to do. in the mean while, we’ll have to put up with videos like this popping up from time to time Actual Video of Water Torture Our Ex-Leaders Confess to on Their Bestselling Book Tours and Our Current Leaders Falsely Deny and there’s nothing we’re going to be able to do about it. that’s it: either change the minds of people who don’t want to change, or put up with their little antics and pretend nothing is wrong.

do what you like, i’m convinced that “antics” like that are wrong, regardless of who they’re fighting. 😐

Police Force Peaceful UC Davis Students to Open Their Mouths … and Then Shoot Pepper Spray DOWN THEIR THROATS and Police Attack Peaceful UC Davis Students With Pepper Spray and Seated and not offering any threat, protesters at Occupy Tulsa get sprayed, point blank, in the face with pepper spray, by cops – it is unclear how a person who refuses to get off the ground could be persuaded to do so by blinding them. more info at Addicting Info

however, University of California President ‘Appalled’ by Police Brutality Against Student Protesters is probably going to be the last you’ll ever hear about getting justice for the downtrodden, and the aggressors are probably not even going to get a warning.

You Say You Want a Revolution – Occupy Wall Street is a paper tiger: All drums and no message. If you want to change the system under which you Americans suffer you must stop collaborating with it…

Make No Mistake: This Is Illegal. Also Insane. – the police said they felt they had to take the semi-automatic-wielding action because “the group used large banners to obscure the windows to the business…”

Former Police Captain and Current OWS Protester Ray Lewis Arrested and Former Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis, In Cuffs – they say a picture is worth 1,000 words…

NYPD Joins Spanish Inquisition in Attack on the Written Word – “the police are saying the books weren’t destroyed, but simply removed and that they could be reclaimed later”… from the dumpster, where they were “deposited” by a bulldozer…

Lobbying firm’s memo spells out plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street – the 1% thinks that the expenditure of less than $1 million will completely take down the OWS movement… we’ll see how right they are…

Fake terror plots, paid informants: the tactics of FBI ‘entrapment’ questioned – gee, you think? unfortunately, nobody will pay attention to the goofy brits and their offbeat humour…

TSA Warns Travelers Not To Smuggle Carry-On Items In Christmas Gift Wrap – another meaningless imposition on what should otherwise be a joyous occasion…

Europe Bans X-Ray Body Scanners Used at U.S. Airports – but the U.S. ignores the ignorant europeans because they don’t know any better…

An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee – The Internet Blacklist Legislation– known as PROTECT IP Act in the Senate and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House – is a threatening sequel to last year’s COICA Internet censorship bill. Like its predecessor, this legislation invites Internet security risks, threatens online speech, and hampers Internet innovation. Urge your members of Congress to reject this Internet blacklist campaign in both its forms!

The ‘School to Prison Pipeline’: Education Under Arrest – remember how, when you were in school, you made the connection between forced education and the prison system? it’s worse now, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better any time soon.

High Childhood IQ Linked to Subsequent Illicit Drug Use – it’s to help us deal with the IDIOTS in charge… of course research won’t tell you why there’s a link, but that’s the reason, when it comes down to it.

Pizza Is Not a Vegetable – at least when reagan tried to convince us that ketchup was a vegetable, people had the sense to vote him down (and, technically, nothing is really a vegetable anyway, but that’s beside the point).

We demand a vapid, condescending, meaningless, politically safe response to this petition.

Since these petitions are ignored apart from an occasional patronizing and inane political statement amounting to nothing more than a condescending pat on the head, we the signers would enjoy having the illusion of success. Since no other outcome to this process seems possible, we demand that the White House immediately assign a junior staffer to compose a tame and vapid response to this petition, and never attempt to take any meaningful action on this or any other issue. We would also like a cookie.

—–

finally, a petition whose results i can actually support… 😐

Hiroshima Survivor Asks World to Awaken – but, unfortunately, she is one person expressing an entirely unpopular view, and she will be roundly ignored by everybody who can make a difference.

A New Declaration of Independence – 1. Debt relief, 2. A substantial jobs program, 3. A healthcare public option, 4. Reregulate Wall Street, 5. End the Global War on Terror and rein in the defense budget, 6. Repeal the Patriot Act, 7. Tackle climate change, 8. Stop locking everyone up for everything and end the drug war, 9. Full equality for the queer community, 10. Fix the tax system… everything sounds reasonable so far… let’s see if it gets anywhere.

Dimock, Pennsylvania Water Still Tainted By Fracking, Lawyers Claim – the oil company came in, polluted at least 11 wells, and then convinced a court to let them stop paying for drinking water to the people affected by their pollution. and at this point, it looks like they’re going to get off scott free, because they have money for lawyers and the affected people victims don’t. next, the people are probably going to have to sell off their land at a substantial loss, because they no longer have a source of water, which means that the oil company can swoop in and buy it all. big oil wins again, at the expense of their customers. isn’t it the american way?

Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Suprise You! – i already know i’m an anarchist, and the answer sure surprised the hell outta’ me…

Super Committee Pressed To Raise Medicare Eligibility Age – meanwhile, it’s business as usual, and nothing has changed… 😛

Obama’s Legacy of Shame – obama is the best repubican president that could have stolen our votes… 😛

Internet Freedom Threatened – DMCA, PROTECT IP and SOPA vs. EFF… but the EFF – which is you, me and everybody else – is going to lose, because people are ignorant, and even when they’re aware enough to have a handle on what’s really going on, they don’t care. 😛

Feds’ Use of Fake Cell Tower: Did it Constitute a Search? – of course not… the constitution isn’t meant to impede the federal government from catching terrorists… everybody knows that.

I’m not a sexual harasser, says Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann Falsely Claims Iran Threatened U.S. With Nuclear Attack – and these people want to be president?

White House response to NORML’s “We the People” marijuana legalization petition – and NORML’s response to the load of tired, old propaganda white house response… but nothing actually changes…

He forgot. All is forgiven. – try that with anyone other than a cop and see how well it works out… 😛

2nd vet hurt at Occupy Oakland event – the oakland cops CLOWNS (although i probably shouldn’t use that term either, since it is probably offensive to real clowns) are a real piece of work: they hospitalise a veteran, then they say they’re sorry and participate in one of the protests, and then they hospitalise another veteran who wasn’t even protesting! it’s getting to be about time to TAKE THESE SUCKERS DOWN! they may have weapons, but we have numbers, and, as Mario Savio said, “There comes a time when the workings of the machine become so odious that we must throw our bodies onto the gears of the machinery to make it stop.” they can only shoot so many times before they are overrun with opponents… 😐

Suitcase sized device can remotely disable phones, intercept communications, record unique IDs and track you in real time and British police surveillance system can turn off mobile phones – and you can safely bet that if the british have the capability, we do too, even though you might not hear about it so much… especially since it is a suitcase-sized device… 😐

Alcohol Is “More Than Twice As Harmful As Cannabis” — So Explain To Me Again Why Pot Is Illegal? – because “everyone” knows that marijuana is a schedule one drug that has no known medical application, and a strong propensity for abuse… especially by brown people and those who would disrupt society in general, anyway…

The Patriot Act Anniversary Week Round-Up – When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry… the Patriot Act has been extended until 2015…

Scum Thy Name Is Quan – Scott Olsen, member of Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War and a Marine Corps veteran of two tours in Iraq… was shot in the head last night by Oakland police, and is currently in critical condition. Mayor Jean Quan’s statement: “I commend (Police) Chief Jordan for a generally peaceful resolution to (the) situation…” #OWS statement: “It is unconscionable that American government officials would sanction the use of such extreme force against peaceful citizens.”

Facebook partners with Labor Department to "help" job-seekers – facebook is implementing facial recognition routines, and buddying up with the federal government… that can’t be good…

Killing For Sport? – 😮

There’s a Cop in Oakland Deserving of a Severe Beat Down – 😮

Up to 20 million tons of debris from Japan’s tsunami moving toward Hawaii – 😮

Colombian president calls for legalisation of marijuana – Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian president, has called for the global legalisation of marijuana… too bad he’s just the president of a country where brown people live…

trust george carlin to lay it right out there, and not pull any punches… too bad nobody’s listening to him either… 😐

Fukushima Update and BP’s Gulf of Mexico PR, One Year Later – you thought you’d heard the last of these, but you were wrong… they’re only just beginning… but nobody cares, because they’re allowing things like this to happen in spite of the fact that they’re the worst environmental disasters ever… 😛

TSA Arrests Me for Using the Fourth Amendment as a Weapon – The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution reads: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, an particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized…

We Don’t Need a Warrant, We’re ICE – The Fourth Amendment strictly prohibits warrantless intrusions into private homes and the Constitution’s protections apply to both citizens and non-citizens alike… unfortunately, nobody’s paying any attention, and even if they are, nobody cares anyway. 😐

Huckabee to Anti-Union Crowd: Deflate Car Tires and Mislead Voters – and i thought i was a terrorist… turns out huckabee is a lot more likely to suggest illegal activities than i am…

Occupy Wall St. Pepper-Spray Cop Anthony Bologna Loses 10 Vacation Days for Violating NYPD Rules – “Frankly, I don’t want him to lose any vacation days at all. That means he spends more time on the job with an even bigger attitude… I think he needs a very long rest someplace quiet and stress-free.”

and, by the way, i bet, as a kid, he was called “tony baloney” which is why he’s wound so tight now… 😉

Throw Them Out With the Trash: Why Homelessness Is Becoming an Occupy Wall Street Issue – “It is illegal… to be homeless or live outdoors for any… reason.”

Sen. Sessions Wants To Cut Food Stamp Program, Claiming It Has ‘Surged Out Of Control’ – 😮

Cannabis Genome Sheds Light on Hemp Domestication and Let Our Farmers Grow and Record-High 50% of Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana Use and California Doctors’ Group Says Legalize Marijuana – but nobody will pay attention, because everybody knows that "marijuana" is a schedule one drug with no medical uses and a high propensity for abuse… 😐

US Army to fly ‘kamikaze’ drones – 😮

We Are Not Your Human Resources – We are not your human resources! We. Are. Not. Your. Human. Resources.

now that it’s coming up on the 1 year anniversary, i’m wondering whether i should be doing this weekly post – another week closer to the eschaton… – before i started putting all the “news” news in a weekly post, i put pretty much all of them up when i found them, and didn’t take the time to comment much on them. now, the more i focus on the abysmal news that’s out there, the more i feel like i’m essentially fighting a losing battle with people who don’t notice and wouldn’t care even if they did notice. if you find these weekly posts useful, please comment… otherwise i may be taking a break to refocus my thoughts.

The Job Killers – “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” this kind of thing is primarily the reason i am so discouraged with the “news”… it seems like nobody cares, because it’s getting worse by the hour, and nothing — save a lot of words (but no actions whatsoever) — is happening to change it. 😐

Poor People Have Rights Too – W. T. F!?!? 😮

House GOP Proposes So-Called ‘Let Women Die’ Bill That Lets Hospitals Deny Life-Saving Care – W. T. F!?!? 😮

FDA Allowed Unsafe Levels of Contaminants in Seafood after BP Oil Spill – really… who is surprised by this shocking revelation? 😐

in case anybody was wondering, i am the 99% and i take offense at the ignorant, right-wing attempts to muddy the situation with things like their “I am the 53%” web site. you may be 53% intelligent, but unless you’re as rich as croesus, you are also the 99% and you are also are being taken advantage of, and SCREWED OVER just as much as the rest of us. – Not Just The ’53 %’: The Working Poor Pay More Of Their Income In State And Local Taxes Than The Rich In 49 States and Raise My Taxes and 99 or 53, We’re Still All The Same also Responding to Erick Erickson’s ‘We Are The 53%’

Financial Giants Put New York City Cops On Their Payroll – and this is how the 1% fights back…

Occupy Elections: A Call for the Second American Revolution in 2012 – A small, criminal cadre of extreme right-wing ideologues manufacture the voting machines that secretly count our ballots… We want our goddamned democracy back!

Tony Bennett on 9/11 Attacks: ‘They Flew the Plane in, But We Caused It’ – George W. Bush: “I think I made a mistake.”

Obama’s New Tactic Against Medical Marijuana Patients: Suspend Free Speech and We Are The TSA, And We Approve This Message – freedom of speech doesn’t include yelling fire in a crowded theatre, and, apparently, doesn’t include advertising LEGAL medical cannabis dispensaries or using the letters T, S, and A in an unapproved manner…

Another 29 Airports Will Irradiate Passengers – but nobody will do anything about it, because nobody cares, and they won’t care until somebody dies, and by that time, it will be too late.

The True Cost of Commuting – for a two car family that commutes around 40 miles a day, it works out to $125,000 over a ten year period… can you afford that? i certainly can’t… 😐

BP to Risk Worst Ever Oil Spill in Shetlands Drilling – after having already caused the “worst ever oil spill” in the gulf of mexico last year, i’m still wondering why these people are still in business, and not facing a firing squad… and, by the way, there’s more of this crap headed into an ocean near you: Oil spill disaster New Zealand’s ‘worst in decades’

Is Obama’s Drug Policy Worse Than Bush’s? The War on Medical Marijuana Escalates – short answer: yes. 😛 also, Former NYPD Detective Testifies that Police Regularly Plant Drugs on Innocent People to Meet Arrest Quota – “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” — Mohandas Karmachand “Mahatma” Gandhi

Children to be banned from blowing up balloons, under EU safety rules – with all of the micro-managing childrens’ lives that’s being legislated these days, it’s a wonder those of us who grew up before this “enlightened age” ever managed to make it to adulthood at all… 😐 as much as i really want to vacate this country, i get the impression that europe isn’t an awful lot better…

ICANN rescues time zone database – chaos averted

It Knows – okay, i’m frightened now… 😮

Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet – it’s likely because those highly secret and secure military networks all run windoesn’t…

In Alabama, It Goes Like This: No ID, No Water – when i lived in alabama (in the 1960s), they taught us “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”… i can see how that might have changed over the years…

Chaos feared after Unix time-zone database is nuked – you can’t copyright facts, but apparently Astrolabe doesn’t know that and now the entire universe is getting ready to implode… 😐

RIAA Law Lets Law Enforcement Ignore 4th Amendment, Search Private Property With No Warrants – 😮

U.S. Drug Policy Would Be Imposed Globally By New House Bill and Feds Tell Legal CA Pot Dispensaries: Close In 45 Days or Face Prosecution – 😮

No Evidence Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Cause Crime – a new study by the RAND corporation… too bad nobody’s paying any attention…

In terms of yields, economic viability, energy usage, and human health, organic farming is better than conventional farming – and the Rodale Institute has got 30 years worth of data to back it up.

Paul floats Obama impeachment – killing al-awlaki is “a movement toward tyranny.”… however, Al-Awlaki sibling claims Anwar is still alive – maybe not…

Private Anti-Piracy Investigator Spills The Beans – former ‘anti-piracy investigator’ explains how he fed police cases, inflated ‘piracy’ stats…

Want to Know the Tea Party Platform? Go to the Sources – tea party? no thanks, i’m drinking whiskey… 😐

Guilty as charged: proof of ‘human fingerprints’ on climate change – but you can be assured that some “christian” climate-change-denier is going to come up with reasons why each one of them should be disregarded.

Boffins place living creature under control of brain chip – stuff to irritate the creationists… 😉

When the World Outlawed War – “on August 27, 1928, in Paris, France… the Kellogg-Briand Pact – outlawing war – was … ratified by the United States Senate in a vote of 85 to 1 and remains on the books to this day as part of what Article VI of the U.S. Constitution calls “the supreme Law of the Land… One way to revive a treaty that in fact remains law would, of course, be to begin complying with it.”

Why You Shouldn’t Take Notes on Terrorist Plots – the FBI has another carefully crafted “homegrown” terrorist, who couldn’t have even dreamed of doing the stuff he’s accused of planning without the help of the FBI, that they’re parading around claiming that they caught another “terrorist”… and, what do you know? he’s a “muslim”… 😐

At what point does the need for security eclipse human dignity and compassion? – a woman who recently had a bilateral mastectomy had her breasts fondled by TSA agents who made things significantly more difficult, and said things like “if we don’t clear you, you don’t fly” loud enough for other passengers to hear… “And they did. And they stared at the bald woman being yelled at by a TSA Supervisor.” 😐

WARNING: Corporate-Fascist Military Coup Brewing in the United States? and Is the United States a Police State? – yes, yes it is… thank you for noticing… hopefully something will be done about it soon… 😐

U.S. secretly asked Japan to help dump nuclear reactors – The United States secretly sought Japan’s support in 1972 to enable it to dump decommissioned nuclear reactors into the world’s oceans…

Electrical problems trigger radioactive steam release at Nuclear Power Plant on Lake Michigan – houston, we have a problem…

BP’s Back, Baby! – what oil spill?

Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales – and when they investigated, and confirmed that this was true (in 2008!!) they fired the investigator for “incompetence”…

Magic Mushrooms Can Make Lasting Personality Changes – “People who had mystic experiences while taking the mushrooms were more likely to show increases in a personality trait dubbed ‘openness,’ which is related to creativity, artistic appreciation and curiosity” but nothing is going to come of it, because “Psilocybin mushrooms are a schedule I substance in the U.S., which means the government considers them to have a high potential for abuse and no legitimate medical purpose, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.”

Who does Obama think he is, Michael Corleone? – 😮

CIA, Pentagon fight to keep Osama bin Laden death photos secret – how long do you suppose it will be until they’re leaked or published? sounds to me like it’s just a matter of time… osama bin laden lives! 😉

School: It’s way more boring than when you were there – new studies show that the disappearance of art, music and even recess is having a devastating effect on kids as we prepare them as widgets.

Most Food Stamp Recipients Have No Earned Income – 😮

Russia may legalize cannabis for agriculture, industrial use but Feds To Legal Medical Marijuana Patients: You Don’t Have Second Amendment Rights. Period. – it’s always been a case of uncle sam versus the russkies, it’s just now the rôles are reversed. 😐

Artificial leaf makes fuel from sunlight and ‘X’ now a gender option in Australian passports – more stuff to bug the creationists… 8)

Man Accuses Daughter’s Homework of Promoting Islam – this is from the great state of georgia, which should explain a little of the headline…

How Apple’s Lion won’t let you trash documents – this is why i’m never upgrading my mac beyond 10.6.8. 😐

Virtual monkeys write Shakespeare – why is this news?

McDonalds to launch ‘Unhappy Meal’ for binge eaters – five normal hamburgers, five normal cheeseburgers, three Big Macs, eight Chicken McNuggets, four litres of coke, fanta or sprite, four McFlurries, an apple pie and a free toy. 😮

U.S. assembling secret drone bases in Africa, Arabian Peninsula – because, you know, we have to be stirring things up somewhere…

You Should Definitely Take More Drugs – whether they’re legal or not…

We Ignore Poverty, But It Is On the Rise – the US has the highest poverty rate among developed countries.

Court Advances U.S. Torture Victims’ Case Against Donald Rumsfeld – now if they’d just do the same thing to bush…

Another TSA Employee Accused of Rape and TSA Searches Dallas Woman’s Hair for Weapons and TSA officer sentenced for theft from passengers and TSA official charged in slaying of worker – 😮

Fukushima "Surprise": Radioactive Rice "Far Exceeding" Safe Levels Found in Japan – who is really surprised by this?

Blast rocks nuclear plant in France – At the moment no one knows whether the building itself is still completely airtight, but some radiation could of course leak outside…

BP’s "Failure of Supervision and Accountability" Caused the Nation’s Largest Oil Spill – and, yet, the government continues to pretend that BP has our environment’s best interests in mind…

Some real Shock and Awe: Racially profiled and cuffed in Detroit and No charges against 3 detained at Detroit airport – the war on terror is over: the terrorists have won.

Guy Who Created The TSA Says It’s Failed, And It’s Time To Dismantle It – it’s too bad nobody’s paying attention… 😐

Massive default is best way to fix the economy – that is mighty close to the revolution that i’ve been talking about for a while now…

FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical’ – it’s apparent that we don’t have enough real terrorists, so the FBI has to go around making more, while nobody is looking. this reminds me a lot of the phony satanism and child abuse scare of the 1980s, in which highly educated, alleged “experts” said all kinds of things about a worldwide conspiracy of “ritual abusers” which were subsequently proved to be totally made up… 😐

Dumpster Diving? – in some areas, dumpster diving is considered to be legal, in other areas, not so much. if your family was going hungry, would you go dumpster diving?

An Antidote for Bachmann’s Anecdote – “No scientific evidence backs Rep. Michele Bachmann’s second-hand story of HPV vaccine causing mental retardation.” also Minnesota professor offers $11,000 for Bachmann’s HPV vaccine victim

‘Values Voter’ catering: Canapés on the tray, animus on the slate – the republican presidential candidates who are attending a “function” put on by a hate group… 😮

Feds Wrongly Raid Home Of CBS Correspondent – oops, we meant the house across the street… of course there wouldn’t have had to be a raid at all if cannabis was legal… 😐

Warner Brothers Hotfile Sues Hotfile Warner Brothers For Copyright Infringement Fraud – this is why the copyright system is broken beyond repair, and needs to be totally scrapped… 😐

Guy Accused Of Being Part Of Anonymous Banned By Court From Using His Real Name Online – what?

finally, more science to pester creationists – Glasgow University in bid to create ‘inorganic life’

maybe this isn’t exactly the right question to be asking at the moment, but: has anybody seen مُعَمَّر القَذَّافِي recently?

Dominionists Deny They Want a Theocratic State: Don’t Buy It – “This is the god of the Dominionists. He’s a god whose followers can be considered above the law simply by claiming to act in his behalf. He’s a god who has no respect for the “inalienable rights” held so dear by the founders of this country – people who were fleeing from a government they viewed as oppressive to their own rights. A government ruled by a sovereign who claimed to act based on the “divine right of kings” – based on the will of a god who establishes monarchs, not democracies.”

Peace Prizes for War Presidents, Missile Tests on Day of Peace – escalation of US offensive missile strategy — launching an ICBM Missile across the pacific on World Peace Day… 😐

Military officials ignored Cheney’s 9/11 shoot-down order – there were two men who wanted to make the 9/11 disaster worse: osama bin laden and vice-president dick cheney.

The Police Are Now Empowered As Art Critics – Police Chief Jim McDonnell has confirmed that detaining photographers for taking pictures “with no apparent æsthetic value” is within Long Beach Police Department policy.

Poll: OK to trade some freedoms to fight terrorism – “Those who would trade their freedoms for the illusion of security SHOULD be beaten up.” Paul Rubino, 20-OCT-2001. also, Why People Are Unmoved By TSA Abuses

Complain About Being Sexually Assaulted By A TSA Thug? THEY’LL SUE! – The Advice Goddess got raped by a TSA goon, who has demanded that T.A.G. pay her $500,000 for her distress at being called out. 😛

Is Texas A Ponzi Scheme? – while social security has very little in common with a ponzi scheme, one could make the case that the state of texas itself has a whiff of pyramid scheme about it…

Space junk at tipping point – my impression is that there’s got to be a lot of “cleanup” which we don’t currently have any idea how to do, before any more than a select few are capable of inhabiting space for any length of time.

Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness – if it’s 40% in europe, i’m gonna bet that it’s over 80% in the united states.

Tea Party Owes More to the Church of Satan Than to Jesus – this is probably why i never really got into LaVey’s philosophy that much…

Colombian High Court Re-Legalizes Drug Possession and Police State Roundup: 15 Reasons Why I Choose Not to Live in the USSA – this makes me want to get out even more than i did before… 😛

Does Marijuana Make You Stupid? – short answer: no.

Gibson Guitar raid part of government effort to extinguish American workforce, outsource remaining jobs to foreign countries – 😮

Earthquake Threat to Nuclear Reactors Far Higher Than Realized – forget about fukushima, we’ve got our own problems… that aren’t being reported in the news around here… 😐

Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head – if the war in iraq wasn’t illegal enough already… 😐

They Hate Us Because We’re Hypocritical Idiots – i’ve been saying exactly the same thing since 2001… finally other people are beginning to say the same kinds of things… maybe there is some hope for the world after all.

‘Contempt’ for Not Standing on a Broken Leg – but, after a day in jail with no medical attention, they dropped all the charges because the officer CLOWN implicated in the incedent “does not recall incident”… 😐

Give Karl Marx a Chance to Save the World Economy – like this is ever going to be given a serious chance…

Social Security Is Not a Ponzi Scheme – “anyone who says that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme either misunderstands Social Security, misunderstands Ponzi schemes, is deliberately lying, or some combination of those…” also, Texas Gov. Perry Became a Millionaire While Serving in Office and Email purges, withheld documents shroud Governor’s Office from scrutiny and Understanding the nature of ‘anti-science’ criticism and Rick Perry Sent Letter On Immigration To Wrong Agency and Rick Perry’s demeaning abortion doctrine – and this guy wants to be our president‽‽ it’s getting to the point where the presidential candidates are so hopelessly moronic that i am actually hoping that one of them gets elected, just so i can watch the republicans who voted for them suffer through the inevitable multiple disasters that having them in office would create. 😐

U.S. issues worldwide 9/11 travel alert to Americans – despite “no specific or credible intelligence”, americans are ordered to be scared until january 2, 2012, just in case. More Americans Die From Intestinal Illnesses Than From Terrorism – it probably won’t do any good, though… 😐